The Scoop from Eroticon2014 (and spank me, it's my birthday!)

First of all--it's my birthday, so feel free to spank me in the comments with the implement of your choice. :)

I just returned home from our whirlwind trip to Europe for Eroticon.  It was the first time we'd left our kids for more than a couple nights, so we kept it short-- one week in all:  two days in Amsterdam, two to see England sights, and two at Eroticon in Bristol.

I highly recommend Eroticon because the community who attends is incredibly supportive. You get no sense of competition from other writers and you walk away feeling like you made real friends.

One of the best things about Eroticon is that it's intimate enough that you rub elbows with the majority, if not all the people there. Having attended Eroticon USA, this time I knew a few faces to start, which made it easier.

Of course, I was ecstatic to see the brave and lovely organizer Ruby Kiddell (also a contemporary dancer!) as well as Harper Eliot and the newlyweds Stranded in Toronto and Stranded GF (will she be changing her twitter tag to Stranded wife? Inquiring minds want to know). I also had the chance to re-connect with F. Leonora Solomon, acquiring editor of Ravenous Romance and Molly Moore and Michael Knight, the blogging/SEO/internet gurus.

I was thrilled to put faces with names I already knew from networking:  Lily Hastings, Lily Harlem, and Lucy Felthouse, as well as meet a whole host of authors I knew peripherally or should have known!



Instead of business cards, I brought 21 inch "paddles" with my logo/website address as handouts.  They were a good ice-breaker and despite needing a little sanding, actually make a good spanking implement (I still have some marks to prove it!).

The opening discussion was on how censorship affects us. Some of it was specific to the UK, but all erotic authors these days know how easy it is to have a book removed from Amazon for content, blurb or cover. The fabulous spanking star Pandora Blake was one of the presenters, and talking to her about her life as a feminist pornographer and sex worker was a highlight. I'm hoping to have her over to my blog for an interview soon.



Here's a great photo of Pandora demonstrating one of the Renee Rose Romance paddles on  author Charlie Forrest.

I attended some great workshops: Talking to the Press by Cliterati stars Emily Dubberley and Mia More; Body Language by my awesome friend Lily Hastings, Sex and Spirituality by Victoria Blisse and KD Grace--a discussion that gave me goosebumps the entire time. Building Tension: conflict and consent in erotic fiction by Mirren Baxter and Judith Watts, two wonderfully skilled instructors who both teach writing professionally, was a great class on craft.

The cocktail party Saturday night was packed and I confess I had a drink or two too many, but isn't that what cocktail parties are for? 

The next day I jumped into Fiction in Flash writing workshop with Kristina Lloyd, then the very interesting workshop Queer as Fuck by Anna Martin and Josephine Myles, two authors who write M/M romance. I noticed many similarities in the M/M romance market as the Spanking Romance market! I wrapped up the conference with Ask an Editor with professional editors Cressida Downing and Barbara Cardy.

FIGGING FUN
Naughty author Natasha Knight, who I had the immense pleasure of meeting in person in Amsterdam, issued a Ginger Challenge to some other spanking authors. Right now the reigning champion is Casey McKay, at a whopping 40 minutes! (she said it plateaus after a half hour).

I thought I would test the theory that ginger is stronger over in the UK, as it seems all the British spankees think figging is horrible, while we Yanks lap it up.  My husband bought the ginger but I'm sorry to say that although there was lots of spanky panky going on, we didn't get to use it. I brought it home in my suitcase, but ended up ditching it in the airport bathroom before we went through customs, and I guess it was a good thing, because the sniffing dog pointed the bag out and I had to answer a bunch of questions about what kind of fresh produce I'd recently had in my bag. I told the customs agent it was ginger, so my husband can stick it up my arse before he whips me, of course!  Just kidding--I said it was a mango!  :)

In case you're wondering, the initial challenge was to time yourself for how long you could leave a piece of ginger on your clit.  It then escalated to the double penetration challenge, which was what we were planning. I'm thinking we may need to do a blogland challenge.... who's in?

Last note-- are you playing our Winter Storm Scavenger Hunt?  Tomorrow is the last day to win an entry to win Amazon gift cards and books! Also, check out the awesome review of it on Spanking Romance Reviews.